Sony Announces The Buzz World Champion

Sony have announced that Armin Diethelm has won the Buzz World Championship. He won a Mini Clubman and also started the La Tomatina festival in Spain.

Press Release

Armin Diethelm gets crowned Buzz!™ World Champion, starts the world’s biggest tomato fight and receives the keys to a brand-new MINI Clubman… all in the same day. How cool is that? It’s all thanks to PlayStation…

Buñol, Valencia, 26th August 2009: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe are thrilled to announce that today, 33-year old Armin Diethelm of Switzerland was

a) awarded the accolade of being Europe’s general knowledge champion!

b) allowed to light the firework that signalled the beginning of La Tomatina: an hour-long, juice-drenched tomato-hurling frenzy in which more than 50,000 people flung 100 tonnes of over-ripe tomatoes at each other in the streets of the Spanish town of Bunyol!

c) handed the keys to his own MINI Clubman!

Why? Because Armin Diethelm is the winner of the Buzz!™ World Championships, a six-month competition organised by PlayStation. It’s an international competition that’s seen thousands of the world’s biggest general knowledge brains battling it out on quiz title Buzz!™: Brain of UK on PlayStation®3 (PS3™) to prove themselves the triviaa king (or queen) of Europe. Entrants quizzed their hearts out online on PlayStation®Network to make it into their national finals – after which the best and brainiest went to Spain to represent their nation in the grand final and compete for the triple prize of a lifetime – the fame, the car – and the instigation of tomato-based chaos.

Buzz!™ is the BAFTA-award winning game that gets friends and family together, delivers a quiz show straight to your living room and gives you an experience to remember time after time. Exclusive to PlayStation, it’s won a Guinness World Record for best-selling videogame quiz and keeps going from strength to strength. The latest title in the series - Buzz!™: Quiz World - will be available this holiday season on PLAYSTATION®3 and PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable). Meanwhile, Buzz!: Brain Of UK is out now on PLAYSTATION®3, PSP™ and PlayStation®2. Find out more at www.eu.playstation.com.

About Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), based in London, is responsible for the distribution, marketing and sales of PLAYSTATION®3, PlayStation®2, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®Network software and hardware in 99 territories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. SCEE also develops, publishes, markets and distributes entertainment software for these formats, and manages the third party licensing programs for the formats in these territories. Since the launch of PLAYSTATION 3 in November 2006, over 23.7 million units have been sold globally and continue to be sold at a record level. Maintaining its position as one of the most successful consumer electronic products in history, PlayStation 2 has sold over 138.8 million systems worldwide. Since its launch at the end of 2004, over 52.9 million PSPs have been sold globally, highlighting the importance of the portable entertainment market. With the huge increase in interest and accessibility of network applications and network gaming, over 26 million accounts have registered to PlayStation Network, the free-to-access interactive environment, and over 540 million items have been downloaded.

More information about PlayStation products can be found at www.playstation.com or visit the Virtual Press Office at www.scee.presscentre.com.

PlayStation, PLAYSTATION and the PlayStation logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. PS3 and PSP are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

About Buzz!
Conceived and developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s World Wide Studios, the Buzz! franchise has brought the PlayStation experience to millions of quiz fans and social gamers around the world - shipping more than 6.7 million units across the PAL region and a further 2.3 million units in the Buzz Junior™ range. The first title in the Buzz! franchise, Buzz!: The Music Quiz™, presented by the eponymous Buzz, was launched in Autumn 2005 on PlayStation®2. It introduced the public to a new way of gaming; simple multiplayer buzzer action and a commitment to deliver quiz games for every interest and tailored to every territory. This has seen a series of regular launches of specialist and general knowledge Buzz! quizzes covering topics ranging from Sports to Hollywood celebrities. July 2008 saw Buzz! move onto PLAYSTATION®3 with Buzz!™: Quiz TV, a natural evolution for the franchise that delivers a dedicated quiz TV network with a channel for each quiz topic, a full schedule of downloadable quiz packs and the creation of a global online quiz community that can compete through PlayStation®Network in ‘Sofa Vs. Sofa’ challenges as well as develop its own mini quizzes. 2008 also saw Buzz! move onto PSP for the first time with Buzz!™: Master Quiz – a general knowledge quiz with six new round types specifically designed for PSP including a multiplayer Pass Around Mode that uses one PSP to play against two-six opponents. This was followed in December 2008 by Buzz!™: Brain Bender, in which Buzz brought his trademark humour to the brain-training genre and Buzz!™: Brain of UK, a series of nationally-themed quizzes available on all PlayStation platforms.

Buzz timeline:
Autumn 2005: Buzz!™: The Music Quiz
March 2006: Buzz!™: The Big Quiz
Autumn 2006: Buzz!™: The Sports Quiz
March 2007 Buzz!™: The Mega Quiz
October 2007: Buzz!™: The Hollywood Quiz
March 2008: Buzz!™: Pop Quiz
July 2008: Buzz!™: Quiz TV on PLAYSTATION®3
July 2008: Buzz! ™: Master Quiz on PSP™
December 2008: Buzz!™: Brain Bender on PSP™
March 2009: Buzz!™: Brain of UK on PLAYSTATION®3, PSP™ and PlayStation®2

About Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd
AboutSony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), based in London, is responsible for the distribution, marketing and sales of PLAYSTATION®3, PlayStation®2, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) and PlayStation®Network software and hardware in 99 territories across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania. SCEE also develops, publishes, markets and distributes entertainment software for these formats, and manages the third party licensing programs for the formats in these territories. Since the launch of PLAYSTATION 3 in November 2006, over 16.8 million units have been sold globally and continue to be sold at a record level. Maintaining its position as one of the most successful consumer electronic products in history, PlayStation 2 has sold over 137.7 million systems worldwide. Since its launch at the end of 2004, over 44.5 million PSPs have been sold globally, highlighting the importance of the portable entertainment market. With the huge increase in interest and accessibility of network applications and network gaming, over 13 million people have registered to PlayStation Network, the free-to-access interactive environment, and over 236 million items have been downloaded.

PlayStation, PLAYSTATION, the PlayStation logo and EyeToy are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. PS3 and PSP are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.